“The chickens have come home to roost”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Acts 6:8 - 7:2a, 51c-60 (Forward, p. 58) CEV p. 1140

Jesus had predicted the persecution, arrest and death of His followers and now that prediction has come true. The man we now know as the first martyr for the faith has been arrested on account of a report submitted to the authorities against him. Now, it is interesting to see from whence this report, this accusation, has come, and to separate the accusation from its immediate circumstances. The charge had come from members of one of the many synagogues in Jerusalem, the one called the Synagogue of the Freemen. Presumably, these were former slaves, probably former adherents of some other religion, or none, who had been converted to Judaism. Among this group were people from Cyrene and Alexandria in northern Africa, and Cilicia and Asia in what is now Turkey. If this supposition that they were recent converts is true, it would certainly explain a great deal, as new converts to the faith are often way more zealous in terms of their faith than people who have been followers for a considerable length of time.

And, it would also explain something of their opposition. At the onset of this account, it says nothing, nothing at all, about what Stephen was teaching or preaching. No, it alleges only two things about him. One that God gave him “power to work great miracles and wonders among the people.” That alone would have upset these new converts, for how were they counteract such obvious and visible pieces of evidence.

And then there were their conversations with Stephen. Obviously, they wanted to convince Stephen of the rightness of their opinion, but they were ‘no match for Stephen, who spoke with the great wisdom that the Spirit gave him.’ That was even worse, for it evoked a great deal of fear and discomfort among them, a real threat to their newfound faith. Here were a bunch of people that were ‘so firmly convinced’ being threatened with something that could possibly ‘un-convince’ them.

I find this dynamic to be present even now, right in Canada and elsewhere in the western world, in terms of much of the polarized debate about Covid or about global warming or a number of other topics. Those standing at either extreme of the debate simply don’t want to hear what the ‘other side’

has to say—for fear of having their own stand and beliefs threatened, cast into doubt or eroded entirely.

But these zealots, if that is indeed what they were, were not willing to raise an alarm on these grounds, that is, the signs and miracles, or the inadequacy of their arguments—as it would cast a shadow on their own beliefs. It would suggest that their faith was perhaps not as strong as they alleged.

So, they attacked Stephen over two things that he may or may not have said. First, they alleged that he had said terrible things about the Temple in Jerusalem, that Jesus would destroy it. And secondly, they alleged that Stephen said that Jesus would overturn the Law of Moses by changing customs that Moses had given them.

So, what can we say to these charges? In the speech that Stephen in his defence before the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, we find no evidence that he said anything about the Law. However, Jesus Himself certainly claimed to supersede the Law, to go beyond it, to fulfill it (see Matthew 5). But even here, Jesus was careful to say that He always adhered to the Law:

“Don’t suppose that I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning. Heaven and earth may disappear. But I promise you that not even a period or a comma will ever disappear from the Law. Everything written in it must happen” (Matthew 5:17-18).

And so, Stephen’s critics, though they might well have found some tenuous backing for their allegations against him in this matter, it could only have come with a total disregard of the full text of what Jesus actually said. They would have had to pull snippets’ of Jesus’ words out of their immediate context and use them accordingly. But then, of course, this is what critics often do.

Now, as for the Temple: here Stephen’s critics were certainly on firmer ground. In his verbal defence before the court, Stephen did indeed weigh in against the Temple and its necessity, and furthermore, raised serious Scriptural backing for this idea. But, given how central the Temple was to their entire belief system, their entire practice of the Jewish faith, they simply could not, would not, listen to this suggestion. Being stubborn in

their beliefs, they were hard-headed in their rejection of it and in their unwillingness to even listen to what Stephen said. And so, rather than even ‘entertain’ it, they had Stephen stoned to death.

So, this account raises two questions for me. First off, are there convictions, matters of faith and practice, that we would live and die for, things that we are so firmly convinced about, so firmly entrenched in, that we would consider them to be undebatable?

And secondly, are there any things, any beliefs or practices for instance, that we are closed-minded about, things where we are not in the least open to the possibility that the Scriptures or the Holy Spirit might want us to consider or examine other options? It is of profound interest that the two things that Stephen was attacked about, namely the Law and the Temple, were, at one point in time, God’s express will and provision for His people—but then, after Christ, no longer so. So, no wonder the Jewish authorities were uncomfortable with this idea, the idea that God might change what He was now asking of them. This whole idea is disturbing to me as well. (Of course, what Jesus supposedly ‘changed’ was either something that God had previously said He’d change, or that was never a God-given mandate at all, but rather, one that human agencies had devised.) Anyway, the folks back then were not open to any of this. I pray that it will not be the same for us, as God continually wants to do ‘a new thing’, in our lives and in our world.

Forward notes: “While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (chapter 7, verses 59-60).

Commemoration: Saint Stephen, Martyr

“Today is the feast of Saint Stephen, believed to be the first deacon of the Christian church, who held to his faith while being killed for it. His preaching of the Good News of Jesus offended many religious leaders, who claimed he was blaspheming God. Enraged, a crowd dragged Stephen away and stoned him to death. Stephen’s last words were a prayer to God on behalf of those who killed him. Stephen’s ability to pray for his tormenters left a deep impression on a man named Saul, who converted to Christianity soon after and became known as the apostle Paul.”

Moving Forward: “How do Stephen’s last words fit within the ministry of the diaconate?”